Thought for the Week

by the Rev. Beverley Sproats, St. John’s Church, Yeadon

YOU may have read in the news recently that the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Dr John Sentamu has been on a pilgrimage around the Diocese of York, an area that covers 2,661 square miles and took six months of walking. As Dr Sentamu travelled around, he witnessed about God, and blessed and prayed with those he met.

On a smaller scale, a happy band of pilgrims joined together on a recent gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon for a Prayer Walk around the parish of St. John’s Church, Yeadon. Inspired by the week long wave of prayer ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, initiated by the Archbishops of York and Canterbury, a joyful group of young and old met at St. John’s Church to pray, then continued up Green Lane to Yeadon Tarn, for a welcome ice cream! We were joined by other church members and continued on through the Haw estate to Nunroyd Park, stopped for a coffee at McDonald’s in Guiseley Retail Park, and finally returned to St. John’s Church along the greenway.

Along the way, we too witnessed, blessed and prayed. We prayed for local homes, businesses and communities and it was exciting to explore new (to me) areas of Yeadon. Whilst we didn’t quite have the same opportunities as Dr. Sentamu to pray for the sick and baptise babies, we were privileged to pray for our local community.

And this is what Jesus did. He travelled around, witnessing to others that the kingdom of God had drawn near. He blessed people as he healed them and had compassion on them and he prayed with and for others.

We don’t have to be on an arranged pilgrimage to join in with this ministry. I recently read a book called ‘Working from a place of rest’ by Tony Horsfall. The book explores how rather than feeling we have to work before we can rest, instead, we can begin with resting in God and work out of that place of rest and security. Jesus rested in God, trusted God and knew his identity in God. He worked hard, but all that he did came from God and even in moments of rest, like when he stopped by a well and asked a woman for a drink (John 4), he had incredible encounters of witnessing, blessing and praying.

So as we are out and about over the next few days, or meeting people in our home, let’s take time to draw closer to God through stillness, silence and solitude, and go deeper with God in bible reflection, meditation and contemplation, and then we will find that we work from a place of rest, as we travel on our journey and witness, bless and pray.